Halfway through

Joel informed me that I'm very overdue for a post, and I have to agree.

I guess the only excitement would start two Fridays ago...Joel and I had planned to meet in Birmingham at Andrew and Amy's to hang out for the weekend. At about 3:00 Friday afternoon, Dianna (vet at the next cubicle) mentioned in an "oh, by the way, I'm sure you know" manner, that Monday was a federal holiday...Of course- President's Day! Shouldn't everyone have it off!?

So, instead of a nice weekend in Birmingham, we had a nice 3 day weekend in Birmingham, topped off with a Sunday night of camping at Oak Mountain State Park. I've attached a few pictures of the camping trip:

Our tent.
Our tent in the morning after we woke up and put the rainfly on for warmth at about 3:00 a.m.
Joel, acquiring more firewood.
Enjoying the view from the top of Oak Mountain.

Oh yeah, I neglected to mention the 2 hours I spent in traffic on Friday, just trying to get out of the city. Apparently that is pretty normal for Atlanta, but I refuse to acknowledge that there is no way around the traffic.

After the restful hiatus in Birmingham, I returned to Atlanta for a four-day work week (government work doesn't seem so bad!). The rest of the week was pretty uneventful (seminars, project, etc.), and Joel came to visit for the weekend! We ate Thai food, went to the park, saw CDC, found the local REI, went to the Aquarium (pictures below) and acted like locals (ate "brunch" on Sunday after church...while reading the paper!), and had an all around nice weekend.



So, now I guess that gets me caught up to the present...today, I had the opportunity to hear Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson, M.D., M.P.H., the acting Surgeon General of the U.S. and the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health...the speech was decently boring, but I figured that its not everyday that you get to see the Surgeon General!

Tomorrow, I have an even more wonderful opportunity! A USDA veterinarian is meeting me at the aquarium to show me around behind the scenes and tell me about USDA's regulation of the facilities...I'm pretty excited and will update with details!